Main menu

Post navigation

The Hype

Lululemon LOVES its lulus. (Is that a thing? Do they call them lulus?) The stores generally have weekly community yoga classes and the locations by me also have run club and crossfit nights AND special series throughout the year, like yoga series and happy hours at local resorts.

In Phoenix, those events were all based out of three locations, but last month, a fourth location opened at Scottsdale Fashion Square. To celebrate, they loved their lulus before they even opened! They gave out Hype cards way back at the end of July/beginning of August (how is it September already?!) and I took mine around to check out the two out of the three fitness studio offerings and two juice bars in the Old Town area.

My first stop was StudioMixx. They are the “ultimate body sculpting system” with “cutting edge exercises, exhilarating workouts, rockin music, and all the energy of a dance party!” I would have liked to go to their signature Mixx class, but it didn’t work with my schedule, so I took their new Ballet Box class, which was 5 minutes of cardio/5 minutes of barre sculpting for an hour.

Did I sweat? Yes. Did I like it? No. Did I not like it because it was too hard and I’m a wuss? No, I just found it to be awkward and confusing. The exercises kind of felt like what an 8-year-old would come up with if you set them loose in a gym with random equipment (bands, balls, gliders, etc.). That’s mean, I know. I also looked completely ridiculous, so maybe my vanity is part of the reason it wasn’t my favorite sweat session ever. To each her own. A friend went to their signature StudioMixx class and was equally unimpressed. I will say that it WAS a lot of muscle confusion and I expected to be sore like I was after a recent tabatta class I took at my gym, but I wasn’t.

After Mixx, I stopped by Juice Core to get eight ounces of juiced goodness. I asked for green and was given two suggestions and I went with the Graditude. It’s fresh pressed and bottled to go in the store and gives you about a three day window to enjoy. It was pretty refreshing!

Saturday was my birthday and I decided to celebrate with a little sweat at Amenzone. This is a new studio I’ve had my eye on for a while and they just opened this Old Town location. The class is called Primal and it’s a functional fitness/training for life type of class – lugging tires, push ups, army crawls. It was tough! I spoke to a friend later that night who had been going for a few weeks and has had a lot of the Kool-Aid and she asked if I loved it, and I definitely couldn’t say that, but it was a good workout. I was pretty sore the next day (although not can’t-move kind of sore) found a really sweet tire bruise on my tricep!

I picked up a juice at Kaleidoscope after that. I usually shy away from celery, but all their greens had it in them, so I just went with the Keri (they’re named after local yoga instructors). It was good! It did have a celery aftertaste, but mixed with mint, it was refreshing. It did taste a lot like something I’ve made at home when I’ve been on juicing kicks, so I would have a hard time paying for it, but when you consider all the fresh produce that goes into the juice and the convenience factor, $10 probably isn’t too bad.

Happy with hitting 4/5 of the places on the Hype card (I skipped Karve – a pilates, barre, yoga, strength hybrid class), I went in to drop it off and check out the new store – so new, it wasn’t even on the directory so I walked ALL over the place to find it, only to see it was down the wing that I usually come in at and within sight of my boyfriend’s store, which I went to to say hello before I went down every other wing first! Oops! Now I know. It’s a good size, well-stocked and full of friendly educators and cute, quality, functional clothes, as always! I couldn’t resist the In the Flow Crop II, a Swiftly Tech Racerback (I ran in this in Idaho and it felt like I was wearing nothing…so amazing!) and their signature Power Y tank.

I thought this was a really cool way to drum up excitement for a new store – even though its brand devotees would have been excited just to have a new location – and give some local businesses a little love. The StudioMixx class was basically ALL Hype attendees (and I can see why)!

Are you a lulu? Do you like trying new studios and local boutique gyms? Would you prefer to make your own juice or do you like the convenience of the new ready-to-go juice stores?